Arbitrary VLAN interface name
Solution 1
OMG - it's that easy:
Rename vlan 42 on eth0 to ext2:
ip link set dev eth0.42 name ext2
Solution 2
I didn't have luck with "ip link set dev bond0.10 name ext0". If the interface is up, it gets a BUSY error. If the interface is down, it gets a NOT FOUND error.
What I did have luck with is this: in my base interface definition for bond0,
post-up ip link add name ext0 link bond0 type vlan id 10
pre-down ip link delete dev ext0 type vlan
and
auto ext0
iface ext0 inet static
address ...
Now I find that "ifup bond0" not only creates the VLAN as seen in /proc/net/vlan/config and creates the ext0 device, but it even ifup's the ext0 device. bond0.10 never comes into existence.
Solution 3
In OpenBSD (and presumably other BSDs) you can set a description of an interface with ifconfig using the aptly named description
argument, see ifconfig(8). This is very handy for distinguishing between a bunch of interfaces. But that doesn't help you.
Unfortunately there's no great way to do this in Linux.
In Linux, interfaces are named dynamically with each interface being assigned the first available name. This means that if you pull a NIC and then add another one (say to replace it or upgrade it) there is no guarantee that its interface will remain the same.
Try a program like ifrename which will allow you to manually specify the interface names. It looks primarily designed to assure that NIC0
is always associated with eth0
but I believe you can use it assign names like external
and dmz
to interfaces instead of eth0
and so on. Udev will also allow you to change interface names using the network.rules file (see here for an examples).
You should be careful to document this as it is not typically done but unlike @MichealHampton I don't see any particular problem with it. I personally make great use of the description field for interfaces in my BSD installs.
Solution 4
So this works well.
in /etc/network/interfaces:
auto lxdHost
iface lxdHost static
pre-up ip link add link eth0 name lxdHost type vlan id 102
address 192.1.1.1/25
...
then ifup lxdHost
pre-up and post-down and the others in intefaces man are the magic hooks to do things your own way.
Solution 5
In debian you use /etc/network/interfaces
to configure your network interfaces.
Be aware that you should install the vlan
package:
apt-get install vlan
From man 5 interfaces
:
To ease the configuration of VLAN interfaces, interfaces having . (full stop character) in the name are configured as 802.1q tagged virtual LAN interface.
For example, interface eth0.1 is a virtual interface having eth0 as physical link, with VLAN ID 1.
For more information check man 5 vlan-interfaces
. Basically, you can give your vlan interface any name, and use vlan-raw-device
to associate the vlan with your NIC. For instance, vlan10 on eth0 would be:
iface vlan10 inet static
vlan-raw-device eth0
address 192.168.10.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
On non-debian distros, you can do this same thing with iproute2
as follows:
ip link add link enp3s0f1 name vlan10 type vlan id 10
ip addr add 192.168.10.1/24 dev vlan10
Michuelnik
Network- and Linux System Administrator with affinity to bash and python. Working professionally with Juniper and Cisco equipment, likes modelling and thereby solving problems. Tries to get a grip on netconf and has an eye on openflow.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Michuelnik over 1 year
Is there a way to name a VLAN interface arbitrarily like
eth72
orext19
instead of the four standard nameing schemeseth0.72
,vlan19
(and the padded variations)?Don't have no clue. Perhaps udev?
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Skaperen over 11 yearsSure, udev can do that.
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Michael Hampton over 11 yearsThis is very likely to confuse anybody who ever has to touch that box in the future. We are professionals here and we assume you are too. Don't confuse your colleagues.
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Michuelnik over 11 years@MichaelHampton: Actual, this wish came from my colleagues - where I have been denying their request.
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Philip over 11 years@MichaelHampton I rename all the interfaces on my BSD boxen so that they're meaningful, like
lan0
andwan0
. I'm genuinely stunned Linux has no easy way to do this. -
Michael Hampton over 11 yearsWell that's BSD; it has such bizarre default names for interfaces that renaming them is pretty much mandatory.
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Michuelnik over 11 years@ChrisS I have been stunned, too. But there is an easy way to do this - simply
ip link set name
...
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Philip over 11 yearsOn all BSDs:
-description
actually takes the description off an interface,description
ordescr
followed by the quoted text puts it on an interface. Also, you can easily rename interfaces with thename
command toifconfig
. -
Michuelnik over 11 yearsUnfortunately ifrename won't work here (I guess!) since it's using the MAC addr to distinguish interfaces and the VLAN-IFs of an ethernet inherit it's MAC.... Same applies to udev if only the MAC can be used as distinguisher. Maybe the full device path?
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Michuelnik over 11 yearsTo your pull-replace-nic-part: atm it's mostly guarenteed, that the interface will NOT remain the same since $most dists are using mac-based dynamically learned fixed interface names. (-> 70-persistent-net.rules) Understood udev so far, but cant get the step to VLAN interfaces there....
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jbg about 7 yearsAssuming you don't want it to persist past the next reboot, this is the correct answer. If you do want it to persist, the appropriate way would be udev rules, systemd-network configuration, or your distribution's specific network configuration files.
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cyfdecyf about 5 yearsThis works well, tested on Ubuntu 16.04.